Research
Planning Communities believes research should respond to issues facing planners and engineers every day and contribute to improvements in how their work is done. We are actively involved in research to provide planners with improved methods in sociocultural effects and community impact assessments. Planning Communities is contracted with the Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) at North Carolina State University (NCSU) and Cambridge Systematics in providing research, analysis and tool development for the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) 8-36 Task 66 Report: Improving Methods for Assessing Social, Cultural and Economic Effects of Transportation Projects. This work builds on best practices in evaluating social, economic, and health effects in the planning process, and focuses on how current qualitative practices can be extended to be more quantitative in nature. We are partnered with ICF International to develop the NCHRP 25-25 Recurring Community Impacts Report and Guidebook.With our practitioner focus and our experience conducting research and developing research problem statements, Planning Communities has the capability to assist clients in determining critical research needs for the planning process and conducting research that contributes to enhanced practices and operations.
Key research areas include:
- Sociocultural/Socioeconomic
- Context Sensitive Solutions
- Advanced GIS Tools and Applications
- Transportation Research Board initiatives
